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Report: $350 million spent to protect lesser prairie chicken

From Staff Reports

Posted:
04/30/2014 06:45:34 AM MDT

CARLSBAD >> Big bucks have been spent to protect the dwindling population of the lesser prairie-chicken.

More than $350 million has been invested since 2010 to help conserve the grouse's habitat and address other threats to the animal according to a recent report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Nearly $250 million dollars came directly from the NRCS via its Sage-Grouse Initiative, while more than $107 million was provided from other partners and landowners across 3.8 million acres of land in 11 states.

The lesser prairie-chicken has lost more than 80 percent of its historical habitat, primarily because of human activity such as the oil and gas drilling, ranching and construction of power lines and wind turbines, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe. The perpetual drought has also sped up the species' habitat degradation and was the main reason for the FWS listing the chicken under the Endangered Species Act on March 27.

Last year the lesser prairie-chicken's population across New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas declined to fewer than 18,000 birds, nearly 50 percent lower than 2012 estimates.